Elon Musk, head of electric (and increasingly autonomous) car maker Tesla, launched a non-profit artificial intelligence research firm on Dec. 11 with other Silicon Valley giants including Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman. Bloomberg News via Getty Images A group of deep-pocketed Silicon Valley investors committed $1 billion to ensure that artificial intelligence serves societal needs rather than commercial interests. The commitment announced on Friday will fund a non-profit research firm called OpenAI Inc., where researchers will be unencumbered by the pressures of for-profit companies and grant-writing duties of academia. On its website, the group suggested that companies dedicated to pleasing shareholders should not be allowed to control the future of AI. “Our aim is to build value for everyone rather than shareholders,” the group said. The announcement follows a string of…